This invention relates to a flashlight holding and positioning device suitable for removable attachment to a suitable support and more particularly to such a holding device with adjustable clamping jaws adaptable to a variety of standard flashlight sizes.
In the prior art, holding and positioning devices of the type referred to for flashlights or other portable lighting equipment are found, but each has drawbacks not present in the present invention. In Oharenko, U.S. Pat. No. 2,727,137, for example, a clamping device is disclosed on which is mounted a threaded light bulb receptacle adaptable to only one size bulb and requiring an external power supply to light that bulb. Other known holding devices are capable of engaging a flashlight but only hold one size of flashlight, or require modification either in or on the surface of the flashlight body, e.g. Thornton, U.S. Pat. No. 3,222,514, or rely solely on U-shaped metallic spring arms to adapt the holding device to different flashlight sizes. With this last-mentioned approach, disclosed in Peterson, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,524,173, and Bacevius, 4,399,498, after repeated bending of the spring arms in order to achieve the proper engaging size, the radius of curvature of one of the arms will vary markedly from that of the other arm, thus preventing a tight hold on the cylindrical flashlight body. Furthermore, because the spring arms must be thin enough so that the user may manually bend them to accommodate different flashlight sizes, the arms will tend to be relatively weak and break after repeated size changes. A third disadvantage is that bending of the spring arms does not provide a well controlled tension for a given flashlight size, so that the flashlight will either tend to slip out if the tension is too light, or acquire a marred surface if the tension is too heavy, as the flashlight is slid crosswise relative to the U-shaped arms of the holding device to adjust the positioning of the flashlight's light beam.